Sunday, April 28, 2013

(St Petersburg, FL)- Embracing the regatta experience as a family really can be fun.
Here's what Brandon Flack, his wife Cindy, and the kids have been doing
with their J/70 TORQEEDO. Pretty amusing and cute story, not exactly
the "DisneyWorld" experience many parents promise to their kids! Here's
Brandon's story:

"When we bought a new sailboat this year, one thing on my mind was the
advice of boats.com editorial director, John Burnham. “Don’t make the
mistake I did,” he said. “Invite your kids to race with you while they
still think you’re cool.”

Well, we just finished up a family trip to Florida to race our new J/70.
I could’ve chosen a lot of different boats if I were the only one
involved. My former college race buddies make a formidable crew in any
boat. But the J/70 has a multi-purpose aspect that jumped out at me
right off the design table. Here’s a sport boat that’s fun for my pals,
but easy to handle for my family.

When we landed in Florida, it was 60 degrees, light wind, and lots of
RAIN. Not what the brochure (or the old man) had promised. It took a bit
of convincing to get the family into their fresh new foul weather gear
but once they realized they would stay dry, we made it off the dock for
an afternoon practice sail. The sails went up and down and everyone
watching seemed impressed our family crew could do it. And at the end of
the day we cheered as a hint of sunshine finally broke through.

When the official racing began the next day, we sailed our first race as
a full family team. Dylan, 7, is the bowman/driver in a pinch. Lily,
10, is the jib trimmer and neat freak who keeps the middle of the boat
tidy. My wife Cindy is the spinnaker trimmer and voice of reason. Dad
does the boat work and drives.

Coaching was all about trying to do things in very slow motion and set
up a rhythm for how each job was done. Crew placement, line locations,
labels, terms, and new vocabulary were all our part of our “comfort
level curve”.

Not that we didn’t have some frustrations. They say what goes up must
come down, but that was not the case with our spinnaker. We just could
not seem to get the hang of getting that thing back in the boat and
spent a few mark roundings chasing it for a few extra minutes.

I usually make the tactical decisions around the course, but the kids
made the best call of day. After the race, with the wind dying, they
radioed the RC and said we’d be heading in — the pool was calling. This
caused a domino effect, and the whole fleet soon followed suit.

Our crew work was flawless when it mattered most. After the kids radioed
the RC, they jumped down below and pulled out the Torqeedo in its three
easy-to-move, lightweight parts (battery, tiller and shaft). They
assembled and lit up the engine, and we were off and running-- first
place all the way in, for the all-important race to the dock and, more
importantly, THE POOL!! Kids win.

When all was said and done, we could've sailed better as a team.
However, I know we won our own personal victory; the kids are pumped to
sail in the next event and try to do better!"